ADNAN ALI

Note: I do realize that "Politically Incorrect" is not a representation of all of America or Americans. I wrote this back in November 2001. I didn't want to change the article itself.

Do we even look under our noses?

 It’s just another night. I was home, back from university, changing channels on the television. On the show Politically Incorrect there was a guest who told the audience, and the viewers at home, that he read the Quran. He went on to explain that he read a line that said, “Thank God I’m a man”. He said that Islam is a religion that oppresses women and that the Quran insults women. The audience then gave him a roar of claps to show their support.

 While I’m being told that Americans aren’t anti-Islam, they’re only anti-terrorism, I see differently in their actions. The man who made the false accusations against the Quran was American. The audience who clapped for him was American. The show host who practically nodded his head in agreement was American. Am I supposed to believe a written statement over my eyes?

 I know that the Quran would never make such a statement. Any educated person should know that. You don’t even have to be educated to know that. Yet, we see people who are “experts” making wild accusations against our Holy Book.

 The day passes. I told one friend about it. Nothing much has changed. There are probably thousands of people who now have a bigger misconception about Islam because of a “know-it-all expert”. Why are we silent? How dare they pull this off under our noses? It’s because we’re too lazy and too passive.

 We will perhaps swear at the television. We might throw something at it. We may even go as far as to break our remote control. But that’s all we do. We don’t have the guts to get together to speak out against situations like this. Our excuse is, “I went to a protest two months ago, why do I have to speak out again?” Or we say, “They won’t listen to us, it’s no use complaining.”

 We will sit down in our groups, blame half the world’s problems on the secular society, the Jews, the materialism etc etc. But we fail to point the finger at ourselves. How often do your hear Muslims blaming Jews? How often do you hear Muslims admitting to their faults and promising to fix the wrongs? Regardless of who’s fault it is, why don’t we try to fix things?

 We have to wake up. We talk a good game, but when it comes to action we are pathetic. I know it’s harsh, but it’s true. So much happens under our noses and we let is pass by.

 (c) copyright Adnan Ali (not like there's anything to copy)